It is after 10pm as I begin this post, and this wasn’t even a port day. My only excuse is that I seemed to stay busy the entire day, and, while I have lots of photos to share, the words sadly haven’t written themselves. So here goes...
There were a lot of reasons to be happy today on the Ruby Princess:
Happy Monday!
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!
Happy Oktoberfest!
Happy high-speed WiFi!
G left the cabin early this morning to join a meeting of the Liars Club in the International Cafe, but I rolled over and had another two hours of sleep, the kind that is so dream-filled that every time I’d start to wake up, I’d make myself fall back asleep to see what happened next. When I finally did force myself out of bed, I took advantage of G’s absence to do some hand laundry and then go into what I call the “bathroom closet” (actually my roll aboard under the bed) to get replacements for a few things that I’ve used up. I immediately had to start practicing what I think of as “extended cruising math”. This was Day 20. If we will be here for (let’s say) 100 days, and if I have three travel bottles of a product (like shampoo), then I should have used about 3/5ths, or 60% of one bottle so far. Based on my calculations, I think I’m going to run out of Vitamin C serum about Day 77. I think I’ll survive.
G returned to the cabin to ask if I was interested in going to the Princess Theater at 9:30am to hear Destination Expert Hutch’s talk about Dunedin. We have many of the same photos he showed, but just seeing his reminded me why I will never get bored doing these itineraries over and over again. New Zealand, especially its South Island, is simply stunning. After the lecture, I was feeling too hungry to wait until noon for lunch, so we went to the Horizon Court Buffet where G had breakfast #2, and I had smoked salmon and honeydew and watermelon. In reading through the Patter, I saw a pasta making demonstration to be held by the Executive and Sous Executive chefs was taking place in the Piazza at 11am. I got there 20 minutes early, and it was already standing room only. Ugh. I positioned myself on one of the marble stairs and waited...and waited. They got started 20 minutes late, so I had already stood for 40 minutes and then for another 40 minutes. Chairs. We need chairs. Desperately.
The Executive and Sous Executive chefs demonstrate how to make pasta
SRO, even on the stairs
At noon, I broke away to meet G for lunch in the DaVinci Dining Room. I ate lightly, just calamari made dairy-free, which was delish. As we sat at lunch, we laid out the rest of our day. I had a a Haka (Maori war dance) demonstration at 2pm, we had a rescheduled Grapevine wine tasting at 3pm, Elite Lounge at 4:30pm, dinner in the DaVinci Dining Room at 5pm, a Princess Theater show at 6:30pm, another in the Explorers Lounge at 7:30pm and a farewell champagne party in the Piazza at 9:15pm. Yep, a farewell party; tomorrow in Auckland is a mini turnaround, with about 1000 passengers leaving and another 1000 coming on. It was a busy day.
Day 20 lunch menu, page 1
Day 20 lunch menu, page 2
Calamari made dairy-free especially for me 😊
In the end, I skipped the Haka demonstration. The day had started out pretty bouncy but the conditions were deteriorating throughout the day. I didn’t think learning the Haka in Club Fusion was in my best interests. I had been using two hiking sticks all day just for stability. But by 3pm we were seated in the Botticelli Dining Room for the wine tasting. I hadn’t been to one of these in years, but decided to today. It must have been a Very Special Occasion because I actually had a few sips of the two red wines.
A second invitation to the Grapevine Wine Tasting
We next met Paul and Marlene in the Elite Lounge for pre dinner hors doerves. It was shrimp night, and since herbed goat cheese and Stilton nights are off limits for me, shrimp night is my favorite one.
Shrimp night at the Elite Lounge
We went to dinner right at 5pm to allow us to dine leisurely and still make it to the Princess Theater for the 6:30pm show. Dinner was excellent, I ordered two starters and had a larger portion of the tofu one served as my entree. We skipped dessert to get a good seat for the show, but returned later in the evening for coffee and sorbet.
Day 20 dinner menu page 1
Day 20 dinner menu, page 2
Day 20 dessert menu
Tian of crab and prawns
Yakitori-style tofu, cassava root and hummus
Multi instrumentalist Michael Young was a great showman, and largely played the banjo. I would not have believed I’d enjoy his show as much as I did. Afterward, we went to Club Fusion for another performance by last night’s Princess Theater entertainer, Steve Marshall. I enjoyed it a bit more in that more intimate setting. We had time then to return to the DaVinci Dining Room for coffee and dessert. Headwaiter Mehai seated us in a different area and we were pleasantly surprised to see waiter Hugo from our Pacific Princess Mediterranean season. He pointed out the window and said, “Looks familiar, right?” He was referring to that December Transatlantic Crossing on the Pacific Princess. And then we all said in unison, “But that was even worse.”
And it was, because the Pacific Princess is so much smaller. By tonight the winds were creating 20+ foot swells, and walking from port to starboard was like climbing a hill...or running down it. Captain Wilson made an announcement tonight that the weather is expected to deteriorate further, and it’s possible that Auckland may close their port, delaying the disembarkation of the 1000 passengers leaving tomorrow. The Captain said that those passengers with independent travel arrangements might want to start looking at alternatives. Oh my. It is bringing back strong memories of Shanghai in January. But this time, the only way we might be affected is by a shorter time ashore in Auckland tomorrow. And, with a forecast of rain, that’s fine by us.
We finished dessert just in time to go to the Piazza to party band The Sound play while champagne was passed around. A few brave souls dance...but nit many. It was very rough by then. We happily returned to our cabin, which is really rough but at least we are laying down.
Returning to our cabin and seeing packed luggage set outside about a third of the cabins to be picked up and delivered to the port terminal tomorrow and knowing we don’t have to do that for a long, long time...priceless. Just priceless.
Life is good. :-)
Day 20 Princess Patter, page 1
Day 20 Princess Patter, page 2
Day 20 Princess Patter, page 3
Day 20 Princess Patter, page 4